At the beginning of the new year of 2024, a hatch that suddenly fell off shattered Boeing's expectations of a "good start".
On January 5, a Boeing 737 MAX 9 passenger plane of Alaska Airlines took off when a closed hatch fell off in the cabin near the left wing. The plane then turned back in an emergency, but fortunately, there were no casualties among the 180 crew members. (News link: Suddenly! A flight in the United States made an emergency landing, and a window and part of the fuselage were missing)
An airliner that made an emergency landing
Although there is no danger, in the "foolproof" civil aviation industry, any safety flaws are difficult to be tolerated, let alone a "big hole" that suddenly appeared in the fuselage.
After the accident, the United States, Europe and many other places around the world immediately grounded the 737 MAX 9 passenger aircraft. (News link: Just now, the aviation giant announced! Temporarily grounding 65 Boeing planes)
Boeing 737 MAX airliner data map from the New York Times
Just dawned, and into the haze, the road to "return to the clouds" of aviation giant Boeing is full of difficulties.
01
Boeing 737 Max, is it safe or not?
"I can't imagine what these passengers have been through. ”
For this accident, American aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse lamented that it was an absolutely terrible situation at the time.
According to photos taken by passengers circulating online, a porthole in the fuselage and the siding around it "disappeared" directly, leaving a large hole, "as wide as a refrigerator".
The situation was even more frightening.
According to reports, only 6 minutes after the plane took off, the emergency hatch in the middle and rear of the left side suddenly fell off, causing the cabin to lose pressure instantly. One passenger recalled that a little boy and his mother were sitting in the row of the detached emergency hatch, and the boy was almost sucked out of the cabin, but fortunately his mother hugged him tightly, but the boy's shirt was rolled out of the plane.
"Whenever such a rapid loss of pressure occurs in the cabin, it is a major safety incident," Brickhouse believes. Now, this may be a blessing in disguise.
Zhang Zhonglin, a civil aviation worker and commentator in the civil aviation industry, wrote an article pointing out that before the accident, the plane had already found two light warnings in the previous day's flight, indicating that there was a cabin pressurization problem and a slight loss of pressure. No problems were found during the overhaul at the time, but Alaska Airlines made the right decision to avoid sea routes due to safety concerns.
According to reports, the part where the aircraft fell off was the rear emergency escape hatch, which is generally used when performing long-range flight missions. However, most U.S. airlines do not use this emergency hatch position, but instead arrange the seats to be used as ordinary window seats, and the door of the aircraft involved is also permanently closed. Wang Yanan, deputy editor-in-chief of "Aviation Knowledge", speculated in an interview with the media that there may be problems in the manufacturing of the passenger aircraft or the installation and closure of the emergency hatch.
On January 8, United Airlines issued a statement saying that it had detected loose bolts on the Boeing 737 MAX 9, which had previously been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration. On the same day, Alaska Airlines also issued a statement saying that initial reports from technicians showed loose hardware in some of its Boeing 737 MAX 9 fleet.
An Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 plane is parked in a maintenance hangar Pictured from ABC
Zhang Zhonglin introduced that because this part is usually hidden in the interior panel of the aircraft cabin, it will not be checked here during the general inspection, unless it is a very targeted inspection like this one. This also makes this hidden danger extremely difficult to detect, and it also causes it to happen more suddenly.
The more hidden the hidden danger, the more worrying it becomes, "How many problems are still hidden?" What is even more unacceptable is that the Boeing 737 MAX 9 plane involved in the accident is less than three months old.
In the aftermath of the accident, questions about the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX have surged. After the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States ordered the grounding and inspection of Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Malaysia and other civil aviation authorities have made similar requests. This means that hundreds of 737 MAX 9 aircraft around the world will be temporarily grounded.
The 737 MAX is Boeing's absolute workhorse at the moment, and it is very important for Boeing. Before going public, Boeing confidently declared that it had "redefined the efficiency and comfort of air travel in the future."
But in the five months from October 2018 to February 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed twice, claiming 346 lives, severely damaging public confidence in Boeing, and the 737 MAX was banned worldwide. This main model, which is known as "unparalleled reliability", has become a "deadly passenger aircraft" for a while, and people avoid it.
Five years later, although the ban on the aircraft has been lifted around the world, it is still riddled with negative attitudes, and it is staggering on the road to restoring public confidence.
Now, the falling hatch has crossed people's minds with a question mark: can the Boeing 737 MAX still sit?
02
Is it all the fault of arrogance?
Boeing has long held the "top spot" of global aircraft manufacturers. As a "century-old store", Stonesever, the former CEO of Boeing, once said: "Boeing can only be the first, and the second means elimination." ”
In 1970, the United States accounted for 80% of the global market share of civil aircraft, while the United Kingdom and France accounted for 8% and 5% respectively. In order to protect its aircraft industry, France united several European countries to form Airbus, which competed with Boeing in the United States. But it wasn't until more than two decades later that Airbus began to emerge as a serious competitor to Boeing.
At an air show at the end of the last century, Airbus employees went to exchange souvenirs with Boeing employees, and when asked which company they came from, Airbus employees replied, "It's your rival," and Boeing employees replied dismissively: "We don't have an opponent." ”
The long lead made Boeing involuntarily arrogant. The two crashes of the 737 MAX showed this arrogance unreservedly.
In 2018, after the "10.26" Lion Air crash, many doubts and doubts at that time pointed to the design of the MAX series, but Boeing did everything possible to hide it. Half a year later, the tragedy of the "3.10" Egyptian air crash happened again, and Boeing also repeatedly refused the pressure of the outside world to "voluntarily announce the suspension of flights", until countries around the world have grounded Boeing 737 MAX, and then had to compromise.
This was especially true of Millenberg, then Boeing's CEO. A week after the Egyptian Airlines crash, he belatedly spoke out on Boeing's official website, not taking responsibility, not apologizing, and not talking about compensation. It was not until the preliminary investigation results of the Egyptian air crash came out that he finally admitted his mistake and assumed responsibility.
As the investigation deepened, people became more convinced that the two Boeing plane crashes were just the fuse, "exposing its omnipresent shortcomings."
There have been media reports that before the Egyptian Airlines crash, some media sent a report on safety hazards to Boeing and the FAA, but it was lost; there were systematic flaws in the design of the Boeing 737 MAX airliner, but the data provided "incorrectly" in the safety assessment report to affect the assessment results; in order to attract more airline buyers, Boeing even concealed the installation of new flight systems and reduced pilot training, using huge cost savings as a selling point.
The documentary "Plummeting: The Boeing Investigation" revealed that Boeing's efforts to maximize economic benefits, push up stock prices, and drastically reduce operating costs, resulting in a significant reduction in manpower, including the quality inspection department, and the inability to detect security vulnerabilities in a timely manner. In front of the camera, Boeing's veteran employees were distressed, and Engineer John Barnett said, "Boeing will make the person who asked the question disappear." I wrote about quality concerns in the report, and as a result, I was given a pay cut. ”
Even after the crash, Boeing continued to reduce research and development expenses on civil aircraft. In 2021, Boeing's civil aircraft research and development expenses were only $1.14 billion, less than half of Airbus's. At the same time, Boeing's equity incentive payments to executives soared from $260 million in 2019 to $990 million in 2021.
A report once asked: "How many new problems do Boeing planes have to arise before people can face up to the prevalence of problems within the company?"
In the end, Boeing also paid the price for its arrogance. Taking China, the world's second-largest aviation market, as an example, as of the end of June 2023, Airbus aircraft had a market share of 54% in China, further expanding its advantage. And in the competition in the global market, Boeing also lost to Airbus for the fifth consecutive year.
What was once a big brother has become a chaser. If by Boeing's own standards, they are currently on the verge of "elimination".
03
How far is it from returning to the clouds?
Boeing is also looking for change. One intuitive difference is that they admit their mistakes more quickly.
On January 9, local time, Boeing CEO Calhoun said in response to the new round of grounding that the company needs to "admit mistakes" and work with regulators to ensure that this situation "never happens again".
But some media outlets pointed out that Calhoun did not specify what mistake he was referring to, and other executives who spoke cautioned employees not to speculate. When asked about this, Boeing declined to elaborate.
It is worth noting that when former Boeing CEO Millenberg was ousted for mishandling the grounding crisis at the time, Calhoun was "appointed to be in danger" in early 2020. At the outset, he pledged to strengthen Boeing's safety culture, increase transparency and rebuild trust with customers, regulators, suppliers and the public. "With the strength of our team, I have full confidence in the future of Boeing, including the future of the 737 MAX. ”
Boeing, which is falling behind, is now starting to catch up again.
On January 9, Boeing announced its 2023 delivery orders, with a total of 528 deliveries, an increase of 10% year-on-year. In terms of new orders, Boeing received a total of 1,456 aircraft (total) orders in 2023, including 987 orders for 737 MAX aircraft, which is the best result achieved since the resumption of commercial operation of the 737 MAX.
At present, the global aviation industry is recovering steadily, and in order to meet the rapid growth of air freight demand, many airlines around the world are stepping up the purchase of aircraft, and the number of orders for new aircraft has achieved rapid growth. Boeing predicts that global demand for new civil aircraft will reach 42,595 by 2042, with a total value of $8 trillion.
With planes resuming flights, orders hitting record highs, and a positive market outlook, Boeing is trying to recover from the impact of the crash. But the grounding storm at the beginning of 2024 has cast another layer of gloom over Boeing's early future.
Previously, Boeing's doors were closed to China, a key market for Boeing, due to safety concerns about its 737 MAX. At the end of last year, Boeing was just revealed to have received a key approval from China's aviation regulator, and is "one step closer" to resuming deliveries of the 737 MAX family of aircraft to China. Now, a source revealed that the Chinese side is paying close attention to the latest development of the "high-altitude hatch falling incident".
The famous science fiction writer Liu Cixin once said: What destroys mankind is not ignorance and weakness, but arrogance. How to get out of arrogance and regain the glory of the past? The aviation giant Boeing has many problems that need to be solved urgently.
Resources:
[1] "Door falling off in the air triggers many countries to order grounding inspections!Boeing is tested again", Global Times
[2] "Orders hit a record high, but the 737 MAX family is grounded again, and Boeing is facing a crisis of confidence again".
[3] "Boeing with Flying Doors in the Air, Can't Even Tighten the Screws?"
[4] "A Boeing 737 MAX "Broke a hole" shortly after takeoff, the sidewall fell off and made an emergency landing", observer.com
[5] "Boeing 737 MAX Door Falls When Flying at High Altitude, Sources: China is Paying Close Attention to the Latest Developments on the Matter" Observer.com
[6] "Boeing CEO Publicly Responds to Alaska Aviation Accident for the First Time: Need to Admit Mistakes" Observer.com
[7] "Boeing CEO Apologizes: How Much Sincerity Is in the Long Overdue Apology", Beijing News commented
[8] "The Truth Behind the Two Fatal Boeing 737MAX Air Crashes," Southern Weekly
[9] "Airbus Wins China's 130 Billion Super Order, Why Did Boeing Lose?"
[10] "Egypt Airlines Crash Investigation Confirmed Technical Problems, Why the Arrogant Boeing Didn't Apologize a Word", Beijing Daily
Curated by Jinguan Lab Text Xie Xiadong Edited by Zheng Han